.....

Subarachnoid shield upon shield
                                                   midfish


                                   man's buttons strung along their bodies
                                         self-pruning overharvested white death


                                 dendrites in an old tin can, or on eelgrass
                                     lines of photophores luminescent cells deep cleft of buttocks


                     the hairlike filoplumes which sometimes protrude from the purifying rays of the sun
                            a great wheel of birds for color in an electron
                                the mollusk in its talons with an ink knife
                                     a chemical mirror